SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. — The Washington State Conservation Commission toured the fast-growing north Puget Sound area last week, and farmer Dan Bartelheimer had something to tell it.

“This agricultural land needs to be protected and kept intact,” said Bartelheimer, president of the Snohomish County Farm Bureau.

The simple message won’t be easy to carry out. The county’s agricultural sector has been losing ground to private development and government projects. The first stop on the commission’s tour was a former dairy that will become a city park.

Bartelheimer’s farm was the second stop. His family has been farming in the county for more than a century. Times have changed. “It seem like everybody’s sitting on a hill and looking down and expressing their opinion, ‘Hey, here’s how they should do it.’ And years ago, we didn’t have that,” he said.

So, Bartelheimer said, farmers must change, too.

“The Farm Bureau has always been great for property rights,” he said in a post-tour interview. “It’s not just property rights. It’s responsible stewardship. We have to look at things a little differently if we’re going to preserve agriculture in the community.”

The county Farm Bureau has tried in vain to claim that converting publicly owned farmland into fish habitat violates the state’s Growth Management Act. Last summer, farmers shifted tactics. They hosted a dinner for government officials, environmentalists and tribal leaders.

“It was a very powerful dinner,” organic farmer Tristan Klesick said. “When you break bread, you can’t demonize the person in front of you.”

Snohomish County Conservation District Manager Monte Marti said he’ll remember the evening forever.

“This has not been easy for Dan (Bartelheimer) to come to the table,” Marti said. “There are probably Farm Bureau members who think he’s nuts for even sitting at the table.

“He’s not backing down on his beliefs. He still has very strong principles,” Marti said. “At least he’s going to get his day in court. He’s being heard.”

The county has an array of land preservation initiatives. Bartelheimer said the Farm Bureau has been reluctant to engage because of the belief that projects valued fish restoration over farmland preservation.

“The Farm Bureau has felt that very, very strongly, so that’s why in the past we’ve said, ‘We’re not going there,’” he said. “And we’ve done nothing but lose ground.

“In order to survive, we have to be more flexible — to work with our neighbors, the tribes, the environmentalists,” Bartelheimer said. “They were all on one track, and we were on another track. We were the Lone Ranger. You can’t beat them that way. … They have a bigger pocketbook.”

Unincorporated Snohomish County’s population has grown by 12 percent since the 2010 census, according to the state Office of Financial Management. Between 2007 and 2012, the number of producers whose primary occupation was farming dropped to 511 from 659, a 22 percent decrease, according to the USDA.

“We have urban pressure, environmental pressure and market pressure,” Klesick said. “The farmers are not so unified on preserving farmland. They want to preserve the right to put a house on their farmland.”

Klesick said preserving farmland may require purchasing development rights and projects that save cropland as well as create fish habitat. “I’m looking for the ag community and the restoration community to win,” said Kelsick, co-chairman of the Snohomish Sustainable Lands Strategy, a group that includes tribes, environmentalists and government officials.

Marti said he will fight to preserve farmland, but “there will be more land to go out of production for salmon habitat.”

Said Bartelheimer: “That may be, but I think we can slow it way down.”